During this lesson, students will be introduced to the history of life by learning about when the earth was formed, its conditions and the first signs of life. Secondly, students will learn that fossils serve as evidence that organisms once lived on this earth. Next, students will learn about the two different methods scientists use to date fossils: relative dating and radioactive dating. They will take a brief set of notes followed by a short movie clip on radioactive dating. Finally, students will be asked join the CSI- North Kingstown team to solve a murder case by identifying the skeletal remains of the victim using carbon dating methods.
To this point, students have learned about the formation of earth, the importance of the fossil record and how to use relative and radiometric dating to calculate the age of a rock. Today, students will gain perspective on how important these methods are in order for scientists to be able to create a chronology of earth’s history. In this activity, students will create a 5 meter long geological time scale that begins with the formation of earth and stops at present day while detailing eras, periods, major events, introduction of new species and mass extinctions. The goal for this activity is to gain perspective on the huge amount of time that life has existed on earth in relation to the small amount of time that it has been inhabited by humans.
Day 3:Origin of Life:
Students will be broken up into four groups to explore the concept of spontaneous generation, biogenesis, primordial soup theory, endosymbiont theory and design a poster board that displays key information including the scientists and their experiments used to either generate or disprove each theory about the origin of life. Each group will give a 5-10 minute presentation while the remaining classmates fill in a graphic organizer as means for recording the topic notes.
Today will consist of a 45 minute review using "Who wants to be a Millionaire Student" (2 Rounds) in addition to the History of Life test on Chapter 14.
[[Day 5:]] Is Evolution just a theory?
This lesson serves as an introduction to the theory of evolution. Before students can explore the various topics of evolution, they first must be able to understand the difference between a theory, scientific theory, and a fact. Often times, there are great misconceptions students have when discussing evolution. For example, a student may be confused why evolution is referred to as just a theory even though there are various forms of evidence that support it. But in fact, if students can differentiate between the common definition of theory and scientific definition of a theory then they will have to knowledge to begin debunking some of misconceptions and controversy that surrounds the topics of evolution that we will explore in subsequent lessons.
First students will be given an anticipation guide which will ask students to read a statement and choose whether it is a theory, scientific theory, fact or scientific law followed by a brief class discussion. Next, I will show the PBS video “Evolution, just a theory?” as a vehicle for students to compare and contrast the definitions of theory, fact, hypothesis and scientific law using a Venn diagram. After working in small groups, we will discuss as a class and fill in any additional information as necessary.
The second part of the class students will take a journey back in time to explore the historical context of evolution by completing a jig saw activity using different theories from Thomas Malthus, Jean-Baptiste De Lamarck, Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace. The close to this lesson will allow students to revisit the anticipation guide they first filled out at the beginning of class. This will allow students to celebrate their progress from today’s lesson in addition to providing a formative assessment for the teacher.
Students will be given 3 power point slides to introduce them to Natural Selection through the eyes of Charle Darwin. The majority of the 90 minute period will be spent dining in the Galapagos Island where students will engage in a guided inquiry lab which simulates Natural Selection by using various utensils such as chop sticks, forks, spoons, clothes pins, tweezers, forceps that represent various beak types of Darwin's Finches. The food sources available are different types of beans including black beans, kidney beans as well as sunflower seeds, popcorn kernals, toothpicks and pom poms. Once students collect the data and intrepret the findings, we will have a class discussion about what drives natural selection including variation, genes, environment and what is necessary for surivival including adapations and hereditary. Furthermore, students will decide whether their data they graph best represents the concept of directional, stabilizating or disruptive selection.
Students will be in the computer lab completing an interactive lab called "The Pollenpeeper" which explores concepts of speciation including genetic drift, gene flow and driving forces for speciation and population changes.
Day 7:Evolution- Prove it! To this point, students have explored the history, patterns and mechanisms of evolution which are observations that support the theory of evolution. Now, it is time to introduce the evidence behind evolution. In today’s lab, students will learn about five pieces of evidence: embryology, adaptations, fossil records, comparative anatomy and biochemistry by following using interactive power point slides, a short video clip, group discussions, and a hands-on activity.
As a follow up assignment for homework, students will be expected to find an article about any form of evidence that supports evolution; analyze it, and write a one-two paragraph responses discussing how the evidence supports evolution and what additional areas of research can be performed based on these findings.
Day 8::How does Evolution Contribute to Society? This concluding lesson allows students to bridge the gap between in-class material and real world issues/events in areas such as health & medicine, agriculture, diversity and the environment. Students will actually be able to make connections and apply the concepts they have learned throughout the unit to answer questions such as: How does evolution contribute to our society? Is evolution occurring all around us at this very moment?
Using resources that will be provided at the beginning of class (limited to 1 page each) students will be expected to read through the article or source of information, highlight the relevancy of each topic and fill out a their section of a graphic organizer (based on topic) which will provide answers to the questions posed above. Next, students will form groups based on what topic they were randomly assigned. The groups will have an open discussion regarding the topic. Once students get the opportunity to share ideas and draw conclusions (15 minutes), they will be expected to take the last half of class to create 1-3 pages of a book with illustrations for seventh graders that tells a story as to “Why Evolution Rocks!”
Day 9:Review and Exam Day Students will have the opportunity to engage in a final review session of lessons (Day 1-8) using “Jeopardy.” This game will be played in teams and the team that scores the most points during the round will receive an extra 3 points added to their test grade. The game of jeopardy will be timed to last no more than 40 minutes allowing a minimum of 45 minutes to complete the unit exam.
Day 1: History of Life/CSI- North Kingstown
During this lesson, students will be introduced to the history of life by learning about when the earth was formed, its conditions and the first signs of life. Secondly, students will learn that fossils serve as evidence that organisms once lived on this earth. Next, students will learn about the two different methods scientists use to date fossils: relative dating and radioactive dating. They will take a brief set of notes followed by a short movie clip on radioactive dating. Finally, students will be asked join the CSI- North Kingstown team to solve a murder case by identifying the skeletal remains of the victim using carbon dating methods.
Day 2: Geological Timescale Project:
To this point, students have learned about the formation of earth, the importance of the fossil record and how to use relative and radiometric dating to calculate the age of a rock. Today, students will gain perspective on how important these methods are in order for scientists to be able to create a chronology of earth’s history. In this activity, students will create a 5 meter long geological time scale that begins with the formation of earth and stops at present day while detailing eras, periods, major events, introduction of new species and mass extinctions. The goal for this activity is to gain perspective on the huge amount of time that life has existed on earth in relation to the small amount of time that it has been inhabited by humans.
Day 3: Origin of Life:
Students will be broken up into four groups to explore the concept of spontaneous generation, biogenesis, primordial soup theory, endosymbiont theory and design a poster board that displays key information including the scientists and their experiments used to either generate or disprove each theory about the origin of life. Each group will give a 5-10 minute presentation while the remaining classmates fill in a graphic organizer as means for recording the topic notes.
Day 4: History of Life Review/Exam Day:
Today will consist of a 45 minute review using "Who wants to be a Millionaire Student" (2 Rounds) in addition to the History of Life test on Chapter 14.
[[Day 5:]] Is Evolution just a theory?
This lesson serves as an introduction to the theory of evolution. Before students can explore the various topics of evolution, they first must be able to understand the difference between a theory, scientific theory, and a fact. Often times, there are great misconceptions students have when discussing evolution. For example, a student may be confused why evolution is referred to as just a theory even though there are various forms of evidence that support it. But in fact, if students can differentiate between the common definition of theory and scientific definition of a theory then they will have to knowledge to begin debunking some of misconceptions and controversy that surrounds the topics of evolution that we will explore in subsequent lessons.
First students will be given an anticipation guide which will ask students to read a statement and choose whether it is a theory, scientific theory, fact or scientific law followed by a brief class discussion. Next, I will show the PBS video “Evolution, just a theory?” as a vehicle for students to compare and contrast the definitions of theory, fact, hypothesis and scientific law using a Venn diagram. After working in small groups, we will discuss as a class and fill in any additional information as necessary.
The second part of the class students will take a journey back in time to explore the historical context of evolution by completing a jig saw activity using different theories from Thomas Malthus, Jean-Baptiste De Lamarck, Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace. The close to this lesson will allow students to revisit the anticipation guide they first filled out at the beginning of class. This will allow students to celebrate their progress from today’s lesson in addition to providing a formative assessment for the teacher.
Day: Let's Dine in the Galapagos!
Students will be given 3 power point slides to introduce them to Natural Selection through the eyes of Charle Darwin. The majority of the 90 minute period will be spent dining in the Galapagos Island where students will engage in a guided inquiry lab which simulates Natural Selection by using various utensils such as chop sticks, forks, spoons, clothes pins, tweezers, forceps that represent various beak types of Darwin's Finches. The food sources available are different types of beans including black beans, kidney beans as well as sunflower seeds, popcorn kernals, toothpicks and pom poms. Once students collect the data and intrepret the findings, we will have a class discussion about what drives natural selection including variation, genes, environment and what is necessary for surivival including adapations and hereditary. Furthermore, students will decide whether their data they graph best represents the concept of directional, stabilizating or disruptive selection.
Day*: Speciation
Students will be in the computer lab completing an interactive lab called "The Pollenpeeper" which explores concepts of speciation including genetic drift, gene flow and driving forces for speciation and population changes.
Day 7: Evolution- Prove it!
To this point, students have explored the history, patterns and mechanisms of evolution which are observations that support the theory of evolution. Now, it is time to introduce the evidence behind evolution. In today’s lab, students will learn about five pieces of evidence: embryology, adaptations, fossil records, comparative anatomy and biochemistry by following using interactive power point slides, a short video clip, group discussions, and a hands-on activity.
As a follow up assignment for homework, students will be expected to find an article about any form of evidence that supports evolution; analyze it, and write a one-two paragraph responses discussing how the evidence supports evolution and what additional areas of research can be performed based on these findings.
Day 8:: How does Evolution Contribute to Society?
This concluding lesson allows students to bridge the gap between in-class material and real world issues/events in areas such as health & medicine, agriculture, diversity and the environment. Students will actually be able to make connections and apply the concepts they have learned throughout the unit to answer questions such as: How does evolution contribute to our society? Is evolution occurring all around us at this very moment?
Using resources that will be provided at the beginning of class (limited to 1 page each) students will be expected to read through the article or source of information, highlight the relevancy of each topic and fill out a their section of a graphic organizer (based on topic) which will provide answers to the questions posed above. Next, students will form groups based on what topic they were randomly assigned. The groups will have an open discussion regarding the topic. Once students get the opportunity to share ideas and draw conclusions (15 minutes), they will be expected to take the last half of class to create 1-3 pages of a book with illustrations for seventh graders that tells a story as to “Why Evolution Rocks!”
Day 9: Review and Exam Day
Students will have the opportunity to engage in a final review session of lessons (Day 1-8) using “Jeopardy.” This game will be played in teams and the team that scores the most points during the round will receive an extra 3 points added to their test grade. The game of jeopardy will be timed to last no more than 40 minutes allowing a minimum of 45 minutes to complete the unit exam.